About Open Source

We like to call Open Source “an American conversation with global attitude.” It was the first podcast and now it’s a weekly show on 90.9 WBUR, broadcasting Thursday nights at 9 and Sundays at 2pm. Drawing on our roots here in Boston, we’ll remind you why the city has been the capital of ideas in America since the heyday of Emerson and Thoreau in the 1840s. We’re an independent production company funded by grants, gifts and donations. Please consider becoming an Open Sourcerer by donating.

Our theme music was composed by Dafnis Prieto, the Cuban-American bandleader and drummer. We’re on Twitter, Facebook, and also iTunes—where you can subscribe to our podcast.

Help us plan upcoming shows. Share links, suggestions, angles. Sharpen the question, make the connection, and change the conversation. Contact us at info@radioopensource.org. Or leave us a message on our listener voicemail at (617) 651-2421.

The Team

Christopher Lydon, host

Christopher Lydon covered politics for TheNew York Times from the Washington bureau in the 1970s. He hosted The Ten O’Clock News on WGBH TV through the 1980s, and he co-founded and hosted The Connection on WBUR in the ’90s. He recorded the original podcast in 2003 with Dave Winer. The rest is history in the making.

Mary McGrath, executive producer

Mary McGrath began her career in public television in New York in the 1980s. She met Chris Lydon in 1993 at Charlie’s Sandwich Shop on Columbus Ave. in the South End, where they hatched The Connection and a 20-year-long adventure and partnership. More to come.

Conor Gillies, producer

Conor Gillies began in public radio at WBUR, producing news for Here and Now. He studied cultural history at Boston University and in 2013 created a documentary radio show about sound, music, and listening called Stylus. When he’s not at work, he dreams of drinking warm beer in a Cornish pub. You can reach him at conor@radioopensource.org.

Zach Goldhammer, producer

Zach Goldhammer began his journalism career at the University of Chicago, where he served as an editor for the South Side Weekly as well as an on-air for DJ for the community radio station, WHPK. After college, he worked as an editorial fellow for The Atlantic. Zach is passionate about community organizing, radio history, and nineties music.

Becca DeGregorio, producer

Before joining the Open Source crew, Becca reported at WAMU in D.C., WPSU in central Pennsylvania and The Guardian in Dublin (where she didn’t really write stories but rather accompanied her boss to pubs). She records and edits audio for the show.

Susan Coyne, illustrator

SusanCoyne is the in-house illustrator for Open Source. She received her MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in 2016. Before that, she worked as an educational writer, a copyeditor, a translator, and a teacher, but this gig is by far the best. You can see more of her work at www.coyneworks.com.